What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

I got a catalog from Baker Creek today. Threw it in the recycle bin before I could even look at it. Checked on the recent transplants out front. The lilac looks good and the mesquite still looks ok too I have six creeping rosemary plants to put in and protect this weekend. I need to build some cages which will require a trip to Home Depot for some material to do that.

It caught me good... I've spent $70 with Baker Creek in the past week. Luckily my employer is reimbursing me for the order (it's a sustainability perk benefit). Of course I have no frigging clue where I'm going to put these new plants! I'm already out of room!

 

[chickengr]

your vet sounds like an idiot then if he is going to say its safe w/o even knowing what poison was used.

Some of them are something simple like water and bread mix, to foam up in their stomach and kill them. ok, that one may not harm a bird, Others use poisons that are EXTREMELY lethal to rats /mice / and birds. Fireant poison is deadly to them as well. some of them specifically say make sure you hide it (shove it completely into the ground so none is sticking out) so that birds can NOT see it and eat it, like the ones that look like gummy worms.

For all practical purposes, poison is just that, and should never be assumed to be safe for anything, just because it was not targeted to them. Even what one may consider 'normal foods' can be lethal to some birds. Garlic comes to mind.

Aaron

we don't have that much choice regarding mice/rat poisons. we have blue stained wheat and cakes that will kill mice but not rats and pink stained wheat and cakes that kill both. both are safe for chickens but still not a good idea for chickens to eat it. I don't know what chemicals they contain. I just know they are so expensive that buying champagne for the rats would be much cheaper.

 

[Ascholten]

coumadin works on rats, so does tylenol, grind a few up and put it in some meat, it'll take out stray dogs / cats too if that is an issue. there's also antifreeze too, but of course keep your chickens out of it.

why would you want to kill mice but not rats? unless it's just not strong enough to do the job, that's odd. I have found that electric traps and those spinny 5 gallon bucket water traps work well on rats / mice out here. I have a few snakes which do well on the mice but have seen some rats around, but slowly am getting them down. Still, birds are very sensitive to all that stuff so Id recommend just not letting them get to it.

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

So here it is midnight and I get woken up by a ruckus in the hen house. Hop into some shoes, grab the rifle and out I go.

Nothing. not a darned thing and they are all worked up clucking and yapping pacing back and forth in the coop. No mice, no rats, no cats, no owls, no possums, dogs, NOTHING.

Besides for it being a full moon, can chickens have bad dreams? This is just odd.

Aaron

 

[Sally PB]

My tomato seeds came today! I think I ordered them about a week ago, and that time includes 1st class mail.

Here are the varieties:

Early Annie and Sunset's Red Horizon (shorter season)
Mortgage Lifter (Radiator Charlie's) (for hotter season)
Carol Chyko's Big Paste and Russian Big Roma (paste tomatoes)
Grandpa's Minnesota and Isis Candy Cherry (cherry tomatoes)
Lida Ukrainian (free packet of seeds, will have to look them up)

I grew a different strain of Mortgage Lifter last year and wasn't that impressed, so I thought I'd try another one. I want some more paste type tomatoes to go with my Amish Paste, and some new cherry tomatoes to try. I wanted to have a couple varieties for shorter seasons, as one of my gardens is in a bit of a valley, and it definitely has a shorter season than the one up on the hill.

I'll let you know how they do next summer.

 

[Ascholten]

My tomato seeds came today! I think I ordered them about a week ago, and that time includes 1st class mail.

Here are the varieties:

Early Annie and Sunset's Red Horizon (shorter season)
Mortgage Lifter (Radiator Charlie's) (for hotter season)
Carol Chyko's Big Paste and Russian Big Roma (paste tomatoes)
Grandpa's Minnesota and Isis Candy Cherry (cherry tomatoes)
Lida Ukrainian (free packet of seeds, will have to look them up)

I grew a different strain of Mortgage Lifter last year and wasn't that impressed, so I thought I'd try another one. I want some more paste type tomatoes to go with my Amish Paste, and some new cherry tomatoes to try. I wanted to have a couple varieties for shorter seasons, as one of my gardens is in a bit of a valley, and it definitely has a shorter season than the one up on the hill.

I'll let you know how they do next summer.

I used to grow cherry tomatos in a pot, along with all my peppers when I was heavy into the pepper thing and had about 30 of them in pots too. When peppers would get nasty on the vine i'd smoosh them down into the soil with the tomato plant as sort of compost and hoping they'd add a bit of zing to the tomato with the capsicum, maybe being sucked up into the plant. Going to have to say inconclusive whether that worked or not, pretty sure they got a zing but can't remember how well. I might have to play this year and see what happens.

Got free vidalia onions today, going to probably put them into the ground aloing with some garlics again and see how it all does. I got one tote that got overgrown with weeds because I neglected it after the garlic died out so ill have to clean that out and prep it for garlic and onions !

Aaron

 

[chickengr]

coumadin works on rats, so does tylenol, grind a few up and put it in some meat, it'll take out stray dogs / cats too if that is an issue. there's also antifreeze too, but of course keep your chickens out of it.

why would you want to kill mice but not rats? unless it's just not strong enough to do the job, that's odd. I have found that electric traps and those spinny 5 gallon bucket water traps work well on rats / mice out here. I have a few snakes which do well on the mice but have seen some rats around, but slowly am getting them down. Still, birds are very sensitive to all that stuff so Id recommend just not letting them get to it.

Aaron

blue staff is not strong enough to kill rats. it says it kills them but I found blue rat droppings instead of black.

I considered antifreeze but I have cats around. also my chickens eat poisoned rats and mice so I cannot use anything that might harm them.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I have traps put peanut butter in. Bought off Amazon.
They are called kat traps.

 

[chickengr]

is american peanut butter different than greek? rats here didn't look at peanut butter.

 

[WthrLady]

ours is full of sugar and mine don't go for it either